The Rise of Rap

From the street corners’ of New York to being in the charts all around the World: hip hop is perhaps the largest youth culture of our time. Even though many people said at the start that this trend would quickly move on rap continues to reinvent itself and stay new and relevant.

What "Jive Talk" was for jazz musicians, similarly the spoken word albums of the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron were precursors of rap as we know it today. The first real rap disc was King Tim III by the Fatback Band, but not before the Sugarhill Gang made the music industry aware of this new musical style with their party single "Rapper's Delight", a hit in 1979. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five also recorded early commercial success. Meanwhile many new bands and rappers such as Run DMC and LL Cool J made hip hop increasingly popular, and in addition, female rappers such as Salt-N-Pepa and white rappers like the Beastie Boys all chipped in. Rap had arrived outside of the ghetto.

In the 90s two rap directions were established: Concious rap, which unpacked the history of America and the civil rights movement also dealing with social injustices and gangsta rap by bands such as N.W.A (including Ice Cube, Eazy E, Dr Dre), who painted an unattractive picture by rapping about the reality of life in the ghettos, celebrating the lawless life of crime.

Today it is impossible to picture the charts without rap. Whether it is expressed through street rap or club music, hip hop, it has settled in all around the World. The spectrum of talent from the USA includes big names such as Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Lecrae, Eminem, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Future and Fetty Wap. Rap has also arrived in Europe. The most important ambassadors on the continent include Dizzee Rascal, Skepta, Cro, Example, and the rap style itself can also be found in the works of more mainstream artists such as Ed Sheeran.